West Lauderdale rallies past Scott Central

By By Marty Stamper and Austin Bishop / EMG staff writers
Dec. 31, 2003
PHILADELPHIA – West Lauderdale's Knights rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to ease past Scott Central 63-59 in the first round of the Neshoba Invitational Tournament Tuesday at Neshoba Central High School.
West outscored the Rebels 49-28 in the second half for the win.
Just this past Saturday, Scott Central suffered an embarrassing 79-41 loss to Williams-Sullivan in the Philadelphia Christmas Holiday Classic.
Tuesday, however, the Rebels led 31-14 at halftime behind 18 points from Pierre Barlow.
Daniel Huggins snapped a 56-56 tie with a backdoor layup with 1:30 remaining to put the Knights up 58-56. Lee Nelson added a free throw 26 seconds later.
Two free throws from Rayshun Hopson extended the Knights' lead to 61-56 with only 35 seconds left.
The Rebels pulled to within 61-59 on a 3-point basket from Kenneth Barlow with 25 seconds remaining, but Chris Seaphus and Kolin Boyd each made one free throw to extinguish the upset bid.
West, 13-3, got 21 points from Seaphus, 12 from Huggins, 11 from Mark Ford, and nine from Nelson.
Scott Central, 11-3, got 22 points from Pierre Barlow, 12 from Kenneth Barlow, eight from Dakari Murray, and seven from D.J. Lindsay.
Neshoba Central 71
Carthage 70
Anthony Jones missed a free throw with 12 seconds left in overtime that would have tied Neshoba Central with the Tigers. He atoned five seconds later with a putback basket that gave the Rockets the win.
The Rockets trailed 68-63 with 90 seconds remaining in the overtime period following a 3-point basket by Carthage's Dexter Leflore.
Jones made one basket and Robert Burt made two as the Rockets closed to within 70-69 with 15 seconds showing.
After the Tigers turned the ball over, Jones missed the front end of a one-and-one. He quickly wound up with a loose ball, then made the go-ahead basket with seven seconds showing.
Leflore was unable to get off a shot in the final three seconds.
Neshoba, 6-9, got 20 points apiece from Jones and Eric Smith, 15 from Burt, and seven from Antonio Cole.
Leflore hit six 3-pointers to lead Carthage, 5-9, with a game-high 30 points. Timmy Thompson had 14, Darrell Miller nine, and Josh Luckett eight.
Newton Co. Boys 53
Philadelphia 44
Johnny Slaughter wasn't quite sure what to expect from his Newton County basketball team after two weeks of inactivity.
He was certainly pleased with what he got.
His Cougars jumped out to an 11-2 lead then held off two strong comeback runs by the Tornadoes to take a 53-44 win.
Philadelphia fought back to take a 23-21 lead at the half, and led by four after Eric Lyons made the first basket of the third quarter.
Then the Cougars, now 9-3 on the season, turned things around.
Newton County ripped off 10 unanswered points, including three-pointers by Jose Alcanter and Ricardo Alcanter against PHS' 1-3-1 zone.
But, Newton County's 31-25 lead didn't last for long. PHS fought back to tie the game at 31-31 on a bucket by Lyons with 1:33 left in the third quarter.
From that point NCHS began to work the ball inside and took control of the game, while Philly missed several point-blank scoring opportuninties in the paint.
Ricardo Alcanter led Newton County with 17 points, while Craig Pruitt had 12 and Jose Alcanter added eight. Lyons led Philly with 14, while Bobby Goodin added 12.
Forest Boys 64
Wayne County 60
While Wayne County wasn't able to pull out the win against a very athletic and dangerous Forest High School team, the War Eagles did serve notice that they are becoming more accustomed to hardwood with each passing game.
Wayne County has played as many as 10 fewer games than most of their opponents, due the football team's run to the Class 4A State Championship. With only three non-football players on the hoops roster, WCHS head coach Geary Jackson opted not to start basketball season until after the football season had been completed.
WCHS is a talented squad and is slowly become more accustomed to the game of basketball.
Sophomore David Howard, who scored 24 points against FHS, and senior Cedric Jones (14 points) are already nearing mid-season form.
Forest held an eight point lead 61-53 with 1:42 left to play in the game, but the Wayne County press allowed the War eagles to cut it to 62-60 on a bucket by Howard with 20 seconds left.
One second later, Forest was fouled, but the Bearcats missed both free throws giving the War Eagles the chance at the win, or a tie.
A three-point attempt from the left corner bounced long off the backside of the rim and the War Eagles couldn't haul it in for a put-back attempt.
Forest was fouled with 0.8 seconds left and made both free throws to ice the game.